Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Three deployments of campuswide access control and mobile credentials were successfully launched by Acre Security, a provider of both on-premises and cloud-native physical security solutions. Two of them – the University of Virginia and George Mason University – were done in partnership with transaction system provider Atrium.
Across the three institutions, nearly 70,000 students can use a single credential – a physical card, mobile device, or biometric – for access to residence halls, academic buildings, and other facilities. In addition, the same credential enables a host of privilege controls in areas such as libraries and rec centers as well as payments in dining facilities, bookstores, and retail locations.
At George Mason and University of Virginia, Atrium-powered mobile credentials are elevating the student experience and increasing security.
The platform controls access to all campus facilities, but it also provides administrators with real-time visibility for threat detection, emergency management, and campus-wide or zone-specific lockdowns during active threats. Digital mustering provides automated tracking during evacuations and shelter-in-place situations.
One of Acre’s differentiators is that we offer both cloud-native and on-premises systems so that institutions can choose the architecture that best fits their requirements
“One of Acre’s differentiators is that we offer both cloud-native and on-premises systems so that institutions can choose the architecture that best fits their infrastructure and security requirements,” says Acre Security’s CEO Kumar Sokka.
The company says its roadmap includes AI-powered anomaly detection for proactive threats, enhanced biometric options, integration with campus transportation and off-campus services, and advanced visitor and contractor management.
These campuses add to the two companies’ growing list of shared clients. Prior implementations include University of Utah, Ferris State University, College of William & Mary, Longwood University, and Palm Beach State College.
“Acre is one of Atrium's valued PACS partners, bringing deep expertise in access control and security solutions,” says David McQuillin, VP Sales, Co-Founder, Atrium. “We have a powerful, proven connection with AccessIt! and are working with them to build a similar connection to their cloud native Acre Access platform.”
Acre and Atrium at George Mason UniversityGeorge Mason has been an Atrium client since 2013. The campus uses Acre’s on-premises AccessIt! solution for campuswide access control.
According to McQuillin, they have a powerful two-way API connection between the Atrium and Acre platforms.
The campus uses HID’s mobile credentials and readers. They also have locks from Assa Abloy and dormakaba as well as IrisID biometric readers.
The University of Virginia selected Atrium in a competitive process in 2024. Today, Atrium provides the traditional array of transaction system functions, an omnichannel point of sale system, ID card production, and mobile credentials.
UVA is Atrium’s first Allegion mobile credential implementation, it supports both Apple and Google Wallet, and the institution owns their encryption keys.
UVA is Atrium’s first Allegion mobile credential implementation, it supports both Apple and Google Wallet, and the institution owns their encryption keys.
“We partnered with A-Tech, a leading access control VAR in Virginia, and led UVA through a process in which they selected Acre’s AccessIt!” explains McQuillin.
The campus uses Allegion readers and Schlage locks. They also have facial and iris recognition readers from Princeton Identity.
In today’s landscape, campus safety requires more than just physical access.
“What’s needed is an intelligent ecosystem that protects students from both traditional and emerging threats," says Jeff Groom, Director of Engineering AI at Acre Security. "Our AI capabilities are designed to identify unusual patterns … and the platform continuously learns and adapts to each institution's unique security landscape."
For Atrium, these implementations show the diversity of their mobile credential and access control capabilities. McQuillin calls it their ‘one size fits one’ philosophy that ensures each client gets the best solution for their campus.
He explains it this way: “UVA had a large existing investment in Allegion readers and Schlage locks, so they decided that using Allegion as the mobile credential provider was best for them. GMU had a large investment in HID credentials, HID readers, and Assa locks so it was best for them to go with HID mobile credentials.”
Advancements in credentials, biometrics, and access control system and security capabilities are improving life for students at University of Virginia, George Mason University, and Rockhurst University. But it is not just these three institutions. It is occurring across the country as institutions work to increase safety and student satisfaction.
When we hire student workers in campus card offices or other auxiliaries, the obvious benefit is financial support. But as the story of one Michigan State University student shows, the true value of student employment extends far beyond a paycheck.
In an editorial in The State News, one student describes how on-campus employment shaped her in ways she’d never expected.
She began her campus job at the Spartan Greens Turf Complex expecting little more than learning how to check campus IDs as students arrived to participate in intramurals. Instead, she quickly discovered that her job taught her responsibility, independence, and organization. By managing time, budgeting paychecks, and working with others, she developed life skills she hadn’t anticipated.
Campus jobs are more than just work-study opportunities. They foster transferable skills that serve students well beyond graduation.
As her college career progressed, she expanded her campus employment to include other roles that further impacted her growth. refereeing intramural volleyball and basketball and creating social media content for The State News. Refereeing intramurals allowed her to stay connected to her passion for sports while teaching her work-life balance. Her position at The State News immersed her in a supportive, creative community, that gave her a new level of professional confidence.
True this is just one student’s experiences, but it highlights that campus jobs are more than just work-study opportunities. They foster independence and responsibility that translate into transferable skills that serve them well beyond graduation.
For higher ed administrators, the takeaway is that student employment is not only about helping students cover expenses. It is an avenue for personal and professional growth, preparing them for life after college in ways that classroom learning alone cannot achieve.
For the student employees in your card office or potential hires, encourage them to read the article from The State News. It could give them a broader perspective on the opportunity in front of them.
OrderAhead is a dining and mobile ordering application developed by TouchNet for use at colleges and universities. The system is designed to enable campus administrators to manage dining hall capacity, regulate order flow, and accept payments from both campus card accounts and traditional payment cards.
Administrators have full control over the platform, including menu configuration, promotional codes, order limits, and location-specific settings. The system supports integration with existing campus systems and offers optional features such as loyalty programs and customizable reporting.
It learns, predicts, and controls traffic and capacity. It can even spot trends and analyze history to take the guesswork out of staffing, inventory, and menu planning.
TouchNet OrderAhead collects and analyzes real-time data on usage patterns, reservations, and transaction history. This information can be used to monitor capacity at specific locations, identify trends, and inform staffing, supply, and menu decisions.
The video provides a thorough demo of both the user experience and the administrator interface. It shows how students navigate the app to place their fine-tuned orders and make payments. Administrator functionality includes visibility into orders, inventory, and menus.
The app can be fully branded to the institution’s color scheme, logos, and identity.
By combining administrative controls, user-facing ordering tools, and detailed reporting, OrderAhead can manage both the operational and customer-facing aspects of campus dining.
To see it in action, click the image at the top of this page.
In a recent interview with CampusIDNews, Danny Johnson, Regional VP of Sales for Transact, highlights the company’s new IDX platform as well as other innovations.
He describes IDX as the first fully cloud-architected, multi-tenant transaction system in higher education. By operating in the cloud, IDX unlocks new opportunities for campuses to access and use their data in innovative ways.
The Transact Insights product delivers advanced data visualization tools for both the company’s payments and commerce products. Institutions can monitor spending trends, payment preferences, transaction times, and purchasing behaviors in real time, allowing them to fine-tune student services.
Insights integrates seamlessly with Transact’s cloud point-of-sale system, and for institutions with existing analytics tools, a streamlined real-time data feed is available. This flexibility ensures campuses can harness actionable intelligence regardless of their current technology setup.
Mobile credentials remain one of Transact’s most successful offerings, purpose-built for the unique demands of higher education. Beyond access control, mobile credentials integrate with diverse campus systems – from library checkouts to recreation centers –many of which run on legacy platforms. Transact’s SIS payload feature addresses this by transmitting student ID numbers to these systems in formats they understand, eliminating the need for costly system overhauls.
Johnson also introduces Transact Verify, a cloud-based reader that replaces older iValidate and PR5000 devices. This versatile solution supports event attendance, meal plan verification, point-of-sale functions, and more.
Check out the full conversation by clicking on the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
My name is Danny Johnson. I've been with Transact since 2005. This is a very exciting time for us since we recently merged with CBORD. It added all our clients together, so we are now a very, very large company servicing the higher ed industry here in the U.S. and worldwide.
What we're most excited about, especially at this NACCU conference, is our IDX product. It's named for a brand-new ID experience.
It is, as far as we know, the first and only cloud architected and designed transaction system that truly uses all the multi-tenant, cloud microservices.
It's incredibly exciting where we're going.
We're actually consolidating six transaction systems all into one.
So, this one, we're investing heavily.
As far as I know, this is the largest investment in the architecture of a transaction system ever seen in our industry.
I think our clients are ready for a multi-tenant true cloud system.
It enables something that I think will be revolutionary for our industry, and that's access to the data in new and creative ways.
By moving to the cloud, it gives us abilities to do things with the data that we just couldn't do before.
Insights, another product that we've recently released, is a perfect example of that.
We first released Insights into our integrated payments vertical, and our clients are using it already to look at how students are making payments on campus, what types of payment methods they're using, and using that business intelligence to really modify their processes and become more efficient.
We're seeing the same thing in our commerce side as well. We've released Insights for all our commerce products.
Insights gives campuses real time data on where students are spending money, how long it's taking for them to access food, what they're ordering, and more.
Our cloud point of sale is feeding information into Insights where campuses can see in real time exactly where students are spending their money, how long it's taking for them to access food, how they're paying for that, what they're ordering and where.
With that amount of information, campuses can fine tune the student experience and design it exactly the way that they want.
A lot of campuses already have something that they're using to visualize their data. In those cases, we've streamlined Insights into just a real time data feed.
So, if you already have a platform that you're using to model your business intelligence, great. What we'll do is we'll just strip down all the data, feed that into your system, instead of using the full Insights product.
We have different flavors for different types of institutions depending on what their resources are, what they already have in place and how they go about their business.
Mobile credentials continue to be a very, very successful product for us.
We are by far the dominant mobile credential in the higher ed market, and I think there's a couple of reasons for that.
One is it's designed for higher ed.
Although mobile credentials have been around for a long time and access control companies offer in the commercial space, it's very different in higher ed in the way that students use their mobile credential.
The SIS payload capability of our mobile credentials allows us to send the student number to legacy systems in areas like libraries, rec centers, and meal plans.
It's not always just the credential that you need to pass from your phone over to a reader.
Campuses are like mini cities.
They have departments, they have different aging systems, they have platforms on campus like in the library, how students check out books, in the rec center, taking tests.
There are all kinds of platforms that are using the campus ID today. Different systems that are using the campus ID are sometimes legacy or outdated. You just don't have the ability to have a mobile credential number inputted as the student number in those systems.
We understand that because we've been in this business for 40-plus years.
So, we've included a payload in that mobile credential read.
We call it SIS payload, and it basically allows us to send the student number through the mobile credential read to those legacy systems.
This way you don't have to upgrade absolutely everything on campus.
We've created ways and phasing to allow campuses to move in that direction and not have to do everything.
That's one of the differences of partnering with a company in the space for mobile credential as opposed to using an access control mobile credential out there.
With the merger and the partnership with CBORD, it's even more exciting.
CBORD has also been a pioneer in the space, bringing those access control mobile credentials to their campuses.
Now they have access to the Transact mobile credential as well.
We're bringing choices.
We expect to continue working with Allegion and with HID for those mobile credentials on those campuses when they already have that infrastructure in place.
If they don't and they're still planning it, they have access to the Transact mobile credential in the future as well, too.
We always show up strong here at NACCU. It's a very, very important organization and conference for us. We have a big team here.
We always have a large booth, and we try to bring as many of our products to showcase and touch and feel, look at them and really get an experience for them.
We also have our brand-new product called Transact Verify here as well.
It is a purpose-built reader that we can use for event attendance. It will eventually replace the iValidate product that we've had out on the market for a while, as well as a reader called the PR 5000 that many campuses are using for point of sale and for activities, for meal swipes, for meal plans to go into dining halls.
All of that will be replaced with a very, very elegant cloud solution called Transact Verify.
In addition to that, we have our entire commerce platform.
We have our mobile ordering kiosks where the guests here at NACCU can look through, see what it's like for students to order food, how they can update the prices and menu pictures across their entire commerce platform. And not just through mobile ordering and kiosks, but also their point of sale – all by just updating one location as opposed to having multiple systems that they have to go out and update those prices, the pictures, or change the description, change the product names, the foods, and that sort of thing.
Now they can just do it once and it will automatically change across their entire platform.
In the second article in our series titled Chips, formats, and encryption – we explore card formats. In the previous article, we learned that chips store and process data, but it is the format that defines the specifics of the data – the number of digits in the string and what each area of the string means.
Consider this series of digits, 2024567041. Now look at it this way, (202) 456-7041. An established format defines that a phone number will include ten digits with the first three standardized as the area code.
The format provides order, but the format is not the actual number. That unique number identifies – or dials – the White House.
Similarly, a format defines the way data is stored on the credential, but each cardholder has a unique number.
You often hear an end user say ‘I have a 35-bit card,’ but they are confusing the 35-bit format with the card or chip itself.
For identity and access control professionals, the differences between chips, cards, formats, and numbers are subtle. They are, however, crucial to managing systems.
Understanding the options within each category can ensure you make the most appropriate selections for your campus. It is also crucial in ongoing purchasing processes to make sure you are specifying cards, formats, and numbers that will work in your environment.
Each concept is applicable to both cards and mobile credentials, and understanding them is key to making informed decisions for your campus card program.
“It is always a challenge to explain to customers the difference,” says Todd Brooks, Vice President of Products and Technology at ColorID. “You hear ‘I have a 35-bit card,’ but they are confusing the 35-bit format with the card or chip itself.”
He explains that the same format can be used on any card type, because the format is just the way the data is parsed.
The 26-bit format – also known as the Weigand format – is the oldest and most common. It allows for the smallest number of digits, however, and this provides limitations.
A bit is a binary term for a zero or a one. Thus, 26-bit format consists of 26 zeros or ones laid out in a specific pattern. The initial bits form the three-digit site code with 256 total options. The remaining bits form the ID number with 65,536 options.
The initial bits form the three-digit site code with 256 total options. With that limited number of unique codes for organizations worldwide, there are plenty of duplicates.
The limitation is that with only 256 site codes for organizations around the world, there are plenty of duplicates. While 65,536 seems like a lot of unique numbers, many organizations have thousands of cardholders.
Any card reseller worldwide can issue 26-bit cards so there is no control over numbering systems.
“Because 26-bit is an open protocol, no entity is managing the number range so if care is not taken when placing orders, programmed ID numbers can overlap from one order to the next,” says David Stallsmith, ColorID’s Director of Product Management. “If this occurs, the new batch of cards cannot be entered into your system because the numbers are already in use.”
Moving beyond 26-bitDespite the industry’s concerns, the 26-bit ‘OG’ format remains difficult to displace.
“It works in everybody's system, and some older access control systems can only handle 26-bit,” says Stallsmith. “Even when systems support longer formats, many security managers are reluctant to use them.”
But he stresses that upgrading to more versatile formats makes sense. That is why security-conscious organizations have moved beyond 26-bit.
We highly recommend against starting with a 26-bit format. HID and Allegion offer formats of 35-bit, 40-bit, 48-bit, and they will manage the number range for you.
“We highly recommend against starting with a 26-bit format,” Stallsmith says. “HID and Allegion offer formats of 35-bit, 40-bit, 48-bit, and they will manage the number range for each customer which is a nice feature.”
The longer the bit structure, the more digits can be stored. The more digits, the more uniqueness for site codes and credential numbers. This is crucial to the successful operation of all the systems that use cards to authenticate and grant access, but it is not the same as data security.
“True security is in the chip and encryption, not in the format,” says ColorID’s Brooks.
There are thousands of other formats, but many are custom and can only be purchased from specific dealers. In some cases, manufacturers will create one for a specific dealer, and they will only supply cards with the format to that dealer.
Dealers often claim that it provides an added layer of security, allowing them to further tighten the grip against card number duplication.
Stallsmith says that this added layer does little to nothing for security, and it forces the end customer to buy all cards through the dealer.
“The real security here is protecting the dealer's business,” jokes Stallsmith. “Make sure you're buying a format that's generally available from all dealers who sell that product.”
Since most campus cards are used in access control systems, they typically use one of the formats described above. In addition to the unique ID number required for the security system, however, the same card will often need to contain one or more additional unique IDs.
A common ID number that is used by the institution’s campus card system provider is a 16-digit ISO number. Additionally, dedicated user IDs for applications like library checkout are sometimes used.
If you are planning to move to mobile, find out from your intended provider what formats they support and consider migrating your card population to that format.
“In some cases, the access and campus card systems themselves are modified to support a single ID that is stored on the card using a single format,” explains Brooks. “But in other cases, the card contains multiple numbers, each designed to support specific functions.”
Modern, multi-application contactless cards are built to support this exact situation. Multiple numbers can be stored in the same contactless card, and each can use a different format.
Though it is not always the case, most modern access control systems can support multiple formats.
But, as Stallsmith explains, end users typically prefer all their credential types to be programmed with the same format.
“If you are planning to move to mobile, find out from your intended provider what formats they support for issuing mobile credentials,” he says. “And consider migrating your card population to that format.”
A client-focused approach and close attention to evolving student behaviors drives TouchNet’s product innovation. This is what Melissa Medeiros, the company’s Director of Product Management, describes in this episode of CampusIDNews Chats.
Today’s students increasingly prefer self-service options, enabling them to complete tasks anytime, anywhere. She says this trend is only growing, and TouchNet is responding by offering solutions like chatbots, self-service card replacement with photo uploads, and kiosks for quick dining or mobile order pick-up.
Students are desiring more self-service, so they’re looking for ways that they can get things done and solve problems anyplace at any time.
As part of Global Payments, a Fortune 500 company, TouchNet leverages technologies from its affiliated companies to rapidly bring innovations like kiosks and mobile ordering to clients. The open nature of the company’s OneCard platform allows integration with hundreds of third-party partners, ensuring campuses can choose the right mix of solutions for their needs.
She notes that as institutions face staffing shortages and the loss of “tribal knowledge” due to the Great Resignation, efficiency is critical. Her team focuses on enabling automation – whether through integrated systems or streamlined processes – to help campuses “do more with less.”
By prioritizing self-service, mobile-first access, and flexible integration, TouchNet aims to create technology that works seamlessly for both institutions and the students they serve.
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, thanks for having me. I'm Melissa Medeiros. I am from TouchNet, and I am in a product management role there. I work with a wonderful team of product managers that deal with all of our application-based systems that interact with our customers and our students today.
I have the esteem of being able to work with not only all of our clients today, but having the engagement of our team members who have that innovative technology behind them.
Holistically, there's a couple things that resonate with us in product technology and innovation that allow us to further this ship.
One of those is that students are desiring more self-service, so they're looking for ways that they can get things done and solve problems anyplace at any time.
One of the ways that we help campuses through that is thinking about chatbots, where students can log in and actually walk through helping themselves to solve situations.
A lot of clients today are saying, you’ve got to do more with less… identifying ways to streamline or automate is significant to campuses right now.
Or things like self-service. They lost their card and they want a new card, uploading photos so that they can do that all on their own time and offer that up in the availability that they have.
In addition to that, a lot of self-serve kiosks when you're thinking about the dining or mobile order ahead, things that are grab-and-go, anything that they can do that's quick and convenient on their own time and available for them, they're looking for that.
They don’t necessarily want the people-to-people engagement, it is really about convenience and timing for them.
Another area that we've seen from a trend perspective is that mobile piece of it.
If I think about an experience that a lot of students have is they leave that physical card sitting in the residence hall when they head out for a class or they're heading down to grab a meal.
They've lost that control of access or being able to pick up that meal easily, which creates some churn for someone who has to do some verification or manually enter in information.
The great thing about having it in a mobile wallet is that students typically don't leave these behind. They're kind of their extension of them.
So having it in the lock in a mobile wallet allows for definitely additional alignment and ease for students to be able to have those available when they need it, where they need it.
At TouchNet, we are always looking for innovative ways to help our clients with the challenges that they're seeing. I call it buzz word, but it's really truly inherent to what we do, and that's the platform-centric approach.
That comes in all shapes and sizes in regards to how our customers are able to engage with that, whether that's a mobile app and students can engage with it by seeing declining balances, being able to do check-ins, event planning, or looking at their meal plans that they're set up for, being able to do access management through that.
That's one way.
Other ways that we see that today is in the power of Global Payments, our parent company, with other companies that are affiliates. We leverage them adding additional innovative technologies like self-kiosk services, mobile order ahead, and other solutions that are out there today that are just that step forward in innovation.
Because TouchNet is an open platform, the great thing about OneCard is that it allows for integration with additional partners, so you can truly right-size for your campus and the solutions that you need.
If there's other partners that seem to be a more viable solution for you, you definitely have that opportunity, and we are constantly looking at additional partners that really help from an automation perspective.
I know a lot of clients today are saying, you've got to do more with less, and that's kind of the theme that's been running for quite some time now, and with the great resignation, and lots of tribal knowledge is being lost.
And so identifying ways to really streamline or automate those is significant to those campuses that are losing some of that knowledge and need to find faster or better ways to do this.
So that is really how TouchNet tries to bring solutions to market for customers hand-in-hand so that we can help them through that process, not be a roadblock for them.
How this really impacts me personally is that I do believe that innovation drives behavior, and behavior drives innovation.
When we look at building solutions, we are truly looking at what those behaviors are today, and understanding forward thinking on how do we continue to help drive those behaviors that campuses are looking for, much like I talked about with streamlining processes and trying to identify how to get lean on campus without making an impact on the students.
I have a personal bias to action, so I love executing on the strategy that helps drive this, and I genuinely love being in this industry, where they are driving change to attract and retain students for the next generation to be better, so I personally am invested in this.
TouchNet is available for information online and additional resources. You can certainly explore some of our webinars that are out there as well as blogs and other resources that we have on touchnet.com. Please feel free to visit us in areas where you can contact us if you're looking for a demo.
After upending the transportation industry with Uber, founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick has his sights set on food. He wants to revolutionize how food is made and delivered by automating the entire process, not just one component. From robotic food prep to self-driving delivery, he sees a future where human labor is almost totally removed from dining.
In an interview with the All-In Podcast, he detailed the concept he’s nicknamed the “autonomous burrito.” To build it, he has already raised more than a billion dollars for his company CloudKitchens.
At the core is a 60-square-foot robotic kitchen developed in-house at Kalanick’s R&D center. Its multitude of stainless tubes and conveyor belts automates fast-casual meals like burrito bowls and salads. When an order comes in, it goes directly to a robot rather than human cook.
A small carrier moves the bowl through a sequence of ingredient dispensers. Each one precisely drops the right portion of ingredients – measured to the gram – for the selected meal. A specific bowl, for example, might use a precise recipe of rice, protein, vegetables, and sauce.
The autonomous burrito isn't just a concept – it's a full-stack, robotic system that's working to transform food production at scale.
The bowl is sealed, bagged with utensils, and sent to a temperature-controlled locker via a self-guided robot. Food delivery drivers like DoorDash or Grubhub can their app to retrieve the order from the correct locker. No humans, no mistakes, no waiting.Kalanick says the costs savings on labor are massive. Currently labor accounts for 30 to 35% of a restaurant’s revenue. He believes he can cut this to just 7 to 10%.
Labor is not totally eliminated, as humans will still prep ingredients and fill machines. Once the dispensers are loaded, however, the system can operate autonomously for hours, producing hundreds of consistent meals.
While the current system assembles meals from pre-cooked components, the next step is to automate the actual cooking process. This means integrating grills, fryers, and ovens into the production line.
This development would unlock what Kalanick calls the “internet food court – a robotic hub that could prepare all types of meals at scale. Rather than housing dozens of kitchens, a single 8,000-square-foot facility could contain a few advanced machines with 50-100 dispensers. With this setup, the system could serve any programmed recipe, tailored to the customer’s preferences.
He says this isn’t about replacing restaurants. It’s about competing with grocery stores and home cooking. Since 85% of meals are consumed at home, CloudKitchens sees that as its opportunity.
This type of system could be ideal for on-campus dining, particularly at large institutions that feed thousands of students daily. The reduction in human labor would reduce costs and help address the ongoing labor shortage.
Students already accustomed to dining tech such as mobile ordering, food lockers, and robot delivery. This more advanced, comprehensive offering would be unlikely to phase them.
To learn more, check out the first 20 minutes of the full podcast here.
As a new school year begins, promoting the campus credential and its related services is back to the forefront. A series of affordable, practical ideas are shared by participants in a recent NACCU webinar, Big Impact on a Small Budget: Cost-Effective Marketing Strategies for Campus Card Offices. Throughout the webinar, presenters show specific examples of the marketing materials discussed, giving viewers ideas to use on their campuses.
The University of Alabama’s Courtney Petrizzi opens the conversation emphasizing that even at large schools, card offices often operate with minimal marketing funds. Her strategy revolves around maximizing free or inexpensive tools to stretch every dollar. She highlights three key resources:
Because Alabama’s football team has a lot of money, people assume the card program does too, but they operate on a very limited budget.
Petrezzi designs small, single-sided business cards with QR codes for Bama Cash deposits, which parents often share with extended family. Digital signage around campus – including in residence halls, dining facilities, and academic buildings – provides free visibility. Trackable QR codes on these signs reveal which buildings generate the most engagement, informing future campaigns.
Jennifer Banfield echoes many of these strategies from her experience at the University of Florida, where she is the sole marketing staffer for the card office.
Her philosophy is to keep communications “consistent, concise, and clear,” which allows extensive reuse of materials across campaigns. Like Petrizzi, she relies heavily on Canva, paying $120 annually for the Pro version to manage UF’s brand kit.
For $250, the UF card office shot videos of Albert the Alligator using the ID across campus providing content they’ve reused for years.
Banfield shares a creative, cost-effective campaign leveraging UF’s mascot, Albert the Alligator. For a one-time $250 fee, they filmed Albert touring campus card partner locations using student smartphones. The resulting videos and photos serve as an ongoing stock library for social media and promotional content.
She also embraces AI tools to accelerate content creation. AI helps her quickly generate friendly alligator graphics for badge holder displays and quickly draft polished press releases.
Each presenter emphasizes the power of collaboration and relationship-building. Strong ties with dining services, bookstores, IT, and housing enable cost-free marketing opportunities.
The recurring theme is that creativity, partnerships, and smart use of free tools can offset limited budgets.
Click here to check out the full discussion.
Join NACCU to participate in great educational programs that help build your campus card and auxiliary service programs.
Reusable container tracking software is elevating sustainability efforts in residential dining at Washington State University (WSU). Topanga’s reusable container solution, ReusePass, is simple and effective: check out, enjoy, and return.
In August of 2023, WSU introduced ReusePass at their mid-sized dining center, Northside Café. The goal was to enable students and dining staff to test the reusable containers and management software prior to a full rollout. The test was successful, and in the spring of 2024 ReusePass launched at all three residential dining locations.
To participate in Topanga’s ReusePass, students setup an account using their WSU credentials. Then they have the option to add their unique QR checkout code to their mobile wallet for easy access.
When a student enters one of WSU’s three participating ReusePass locations, a dining services employee scans the student’s QR code and a reusable container’s unique QR checkout code, labeled on the container. The student pays using their declining balance account and enjoys the meal wherever and whenever they please.
We scan your unique QR code and the QR code on your container, and now we have made that one-to-one connection between person and container.
The container is now marked as “in use” by the system, and its status is tracked until it is returned, sanitized, and prepared for reuse.
“If we see that you are checking out a container, we scan your unique QR code and we scan the QR code on your container, and now, we have made that one-to-one connection between person and container,” said Jason Butcherite, the director of dining services at Washington State University.
To return the container, the student simply drops it off at a return receptacle located in one of the participating dining locations.
At Topanga’s 70-plus dining partnerships, the return rate averages 98%. Butcherite reports the same impressive return rate at WSU.
Topanga created the ReusePass software that powers WSU’s reusables program, but they do not make the containers or endorse a particular manufacturer. Butcherite explains that Topanga is container agnostic, and his team was empowered to choose the containers that best met their environment.
For WSU, selecting the right shape and size for the containers was important. They opted for two reusable containers, different in both shape and color.
The general-use container is an 8x3x3-inch clear clamshell manufactured by Whirley Drink Works. It is broadly available across all three residential dining locations, and it is used when students opt to carry out a meal from a dining facility.
Our grill station operates exclusively off mobile ordering. By default it comes in a green container, so when they come into our check out space we aren’t trying to ring them up for the order.
For to-go orders made online or via the mobile ordering app, they use a 6x9x3-inch green container manufactured by GET Enterprises. This was chosen with intent as the green color signals to staff that the student placed a to-go order online, and they have already paid for it.
“When students place an order for our grill station, for example, it operates exclusively off our mobile ordering and payment solution, and so by default, it comes in a green container,” explains Butcherite. “That way, when they come into our check out space, we aren’t trying to ring them up for the order.”
Staff simply scans the student’s unique QR code from their phone and the QR code from the container holding their order. The container itself serves as the visual indicator to let the cashier know that the person has already paid.
“Green means go,” he jokes.
Assuming the container is returned in WSU’s allotted three-day window, there is no charge to utilize ReusePass. For the 2% of containers that are not returned, the person incurs an $8 fee that is applied to their WSU student account.
Butcherite notes that some of the fee money is used to recoup the cost of the lost container, but a portion of it sponsors future sustainability initiatives.
Many of WSU’s containers have been in use for two years, and 99% of Topanga’s RFID labels have remained intact wash cycle after wash cycle. Butcherite says the Topanga operator dashboard shows the number of uses for each container, and some containers have topped 70 uses.
We added RFID readers into our dish rooms to negate the need for a dining services employee to manually scan the containers back in.
The efficiency of the return process keeps the return rate high.
Receptacles, like those used to collect trash, are stationed at the dining centers to make it easy on users. The receptacles – also from container-provider GET Enterprises – streamline collection processes for dining service employees as well.
When the used container makes it to the washing facility, WSU further automates the check-in process.
“We added RFID readers into our dish rooms to negate the need for a dining services employee to manually scan the containers back in,” says Butcherite. “As they enter the dish washing system, the reader scans and registers them as the cleaning process begins.”
For now, WSU utilizes ReusePass solely in residential dining, but there are bigger plans.
“Right now, it is purely residential, but we have a roadmap of future plans for how it can enhance our retail dining as well,” Butcherite notes.
Aside from the advantages it offered in support of WSU’s sustainability initiatives, Topanga’s technology made financial sense for the institution.
We had good pricing on our single-use containers, but when you do the financial pro forma and look at the environmental impact of reusables, it is a win-win.
“When you do a financial analysis and run the numbers, ReusePass made a lot of sense for us,” Butcherite says. “We had pretty good pricing on our single-use containers, but when you do the financial pro forma and look at the environmental impact of reusables, it is a win-win.”
Sustainability is valued across the intuition, and it has become an increasingly important pillar of the dining services’ program.
In addition to the ReusePass program, Butcherite cites other initiatives. These include a Marine Stewardship Council certification for sustainably-sourced seafood; a partnership with the Humane Society to increase plant-based options; and a food waste control mechanism called Streamline – also from Topanga – that will launch this fall at WSU’s largest residential dining center.
As his team continues to pioneer initiatives to meet the institution’s environmental goals, he says he’ll always consider ReusePass a key to leading the way. “It accelerated our sustainability efforts, and it showed that environmental stewardship can also make financial sense.”
Mark McKenna, Director of the CATcard Service Center at the University of Vermont, talks with CampusIDNews about his office’s role managing campus access control. The university uses CBORD’s CS Gold platform with CS Access, and they rely heavily on Allegion locks for door security.
He says Allegion’s Schlage AD series locks are favored for their adaptability to various door types and configurations – both wireless and hardwired. The university’s locksmiths pushed to standardize on the locks due to their reliability and durability.
We run the access control system at the University of Vermont. Our department issues the credentials and the access for different groups.
It can be challenging to select the correct hardware for a particular door or access point. At Vermont, they have developed a strategy by focusing on a limited number of products.
AD-400 wireless locks are commonly used in retrofit situations, because they are easier to install than wired locks. Because they use batteries, however, McKenna says they will use hardwired, powered AD-300s in heavily-trafficked areas.
For building exteriors, the university uses Allegion’s MT series, known for their weather-resistant and long-lasting performance. McKenna shared an example of an AD-400 lock installed on a greenhouse over a decade ago that continues to function reliably despite harsh Vermont weather conditions.
McKenna notes that it has been rewarding to see students transition to using their phone and smartwatch-based credentials throughout the university’s access control infrastructure.
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
We run the access control system at the University of Vermont. Our department issues the credentials and the access for different groups, whether it's students, faculty, staff, visitors, vendors, etc.
We're CS Gold CBORD school, and we're using CS Access. We also use a lot of Allegion products on our campus.
We use Allegion’s AD series particularly, because of their ability to adapt to different types of doors, whether it's wireless, hardwired, that's what I like about it.
The locksmiths like it because they're reliable. They've always liked that they are class one, I think they call it classification, which means they're pretty heavy duty.
So they really like them.
They're the ones that pretty much said, we want to go with the Allegion Schlage AD series locks.
We use Allegion’s MT series on the outside of buildings, but we use the ADs on the inside.
It's so easy with a retrofit – to put a wireless AD-400lock on the door compared to piping wire and setting that kind of thing up.
The wireless locks are battery operated, so we try to use those in scenarios where the traffic isn't quite so heavy. If there's a lot of traffic, we'll use an AD-300, which is the hardwired powered lock.
Exteriors, we'll use the MT series because they're pretty much weather type, lifetime.
We did take an AD-400 and put it on the outside of a greenhouse here in Vermont on the south facing side. We've got the sun, if there was any, snow, etc., and that darn thing is still going and it's now been 10, 11 years. They're pretty robust.
But we'll typically go outside, hardwired, depending upon the usage inside an AD-300.
We can always convert a 300 to a 400, a 200 to a 400, a 400 backwards, but we probably wouldn't do that.
We went with the digital credential years ago, and it's very satisfying when I walk around campus and I see the students either using their watch or their phone to unlock the doors.
That's cool.
And you all hear kids talking about it, you know, how neat it is to be able to use their phone, not have to worry about a piece of plastic.
Those are the stories that kind of make it worthwhile at the end of it all.
